Simris Biologics has received EUR €400,000 of funding from the Investigation Bank Berlin to explore the anti-ageing potential of cyanobacteria and their compounds.
The company will work in collaboration with the University of Applied Science Berlin (HTW) for a three year period, and will look into the ability of these compounds to reduce the prevelance of cell senescence.
Senescence is the cell ageing process, which involves the cessation of cell division.
Over time, a large proportion of these cells can build up in tissues throughout the body, releasing inflammatory substances that damage the healthy surrounding cells.
Simris Biologics will primarily focus on the activity of secondary metabolites produced by cyanobacteria in this research.
Simris Group's CEO, Dr Alexis Roberts-McIntosh commented: "Following a highly competitive process, I am delighted that we have been selected and awarded funding by the IBB to work with HTW, a world-class research institute, to collaborate in this anti-aging research."
"We hope to uncover the value of our cyanobacterial strains in slowing ageing; our team in Berlin is ideally placed to optimise cyanobacteria strains for the production of natural products capable of fighting the causes of age-related disease."
[Image credit: Willem van Aken, CSIRO]
